America lost a great patriot, soldier, and lawmaker when Daniel Inouye died at the age of 88. It's hard to believe, but he had represented the state of Hawaii since the day it joined the Union back in 1959. Two years in the House, and fifty years in the Senate. (His was the second-longest service EVER.)
As a young man, Inouye served with great distinction in WWII; he earned a battlefield commission and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for an action in Italy in April, 1945, that cost him his right arm. He had hoped to become a doctor; when he woke up in the hospital, he said, "Well, it looks like it will be law school."
Not many people know that while recovering from his wounds, he met a young officer from Kansas who had also suffered a terrible wound that cost him the use of his right arm--also in the last month of the war. Daniel Inouye and Bob Dole got to be good friends...and they did quite well for themselves, too.
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